


practice what you preach

by the_watchflower



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Episode 4: Dark Room, F/F, F/M, Hospital Visit, Missing Scene, Remorse, kate survived, or earlier, totally plausible, victoria feels bad and decides to visit kate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 20:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10998723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_watchflower/pseuds/the_watchflower
Summary: She expects hatred. Anger, rejection, fear. She deserves them all right now.But Kate Marsh is none of those things.





	practice what you preach

She stops in her tracks in front of the big white door. Everything here smells either sterlized or dead and looks so goddamn bleached, like Courtney's hair in 7th grade photo, which Victoria totally hasn't snatched by occasion. Ugh, if it was up to her, she'd move the girl to some nice and private apartament. But then again, she's here because of her in the first place.

 

Victoria hesitates to open the door and looks around twice. Clear. Good, no casualties to be made, no witnesses to her moment of remorse. She's got a reputation to keep, after all. She takes two deep breaths and then grabs the handle. _You need to to this, Vic..._

 

The sought feeling hits her immedietly when she walks in, but fastly drops as soon as she falls her eyes on a curled figure on the hospital bed. The chest slowly moves up and down, and Victoria sighs in relief because Kate appears to be asleep. Not sure what'd she do if she had to actually speak with her. Sure, she took this possibility into consideration, but all the while kept hoping that circumstances would be on her side. They usually were, and if not, she would make them.

Victoria takes a long glance around the room, closing the door behind her as quietly as she can. The letters on ballons tied to the chair say "get well soon" and she raises her brow in irony, remembering about her own ballon in her hand. _Shit, too late to pop it now._ A small bouquet of yellow flowers sit in a vase and she adds her own lillies to their company. At least she got that right. There are some drawings splattered on the small table and family photos on the cabinet. She doesn't dwell on them too long, no need to bother that much. One thing catches her eye, tough. She takes a few steps in and notices a polaroid photo of two girls. Caulfield and Marsh. _Max Caulfield, all hail the hero who saved the poor religious girl. She's so brave, she's so right, she's._.. _everything I'm not_. Victoria bites her tongue, altough she hadn't said anything. It became a bad habit of her, being the only thing able to stop her train of thoughts when she gets wrenched. Suddenly, the idea of getting “shitfaced” with Nathan seems like the better option. Maybe she should've said yes. She says 'no' way too often.

 

So that's it, right? She's done what she came here for. Another thing to tick off her to-do list and perhaps even her bitchiness level dropped down a few points. However, the uneasy feeling hasn't quite left her chest yet. _Don't be so emotional_ , she thinks, _it doesn't do you any good_. But then the image of tuesday evening rewinds in her head again and her gut wrenches, the vision gets blurry and- _what's wrong with you_? You already made your apologies, that's enough. It wasn't all your fault.

“ _Ooh boo hoo, I'm sorry you're a viral slut.”_

You just shouldn't have said those things.

 

“ _I know Nathan has hooked her up. And you know he has the good shit.”_

You just shouldn't have allowed it.

 

“ _Let's leave the link to Kate's video, so everybody gets the chance to see her in action...”_

You just shouldn't have posted the link.

 

That's all.

 

She shakes her head, but something draws her closer to the hospital bed. Victoria looks at Kate, her hair down like she's never seen them before. Even when shaking that booty, the bun kept on like it was glued. Fucking ridiculous.

Kate's looking different now. Eyes still swollen, lips evidently bitten. She looks so peaceful, so perfectly still, she might as well be...dead. Unable to help herself Victoria comes closer and take a bit of smaller girl's hair and tucks it behind her ear. She gets a clearer view now. Such a waste for someone so pretty to go to church instead of parties. She might even snatch all the attention from her. As if she'd let her anyway...

 

One small tear falls on Kate's right cheek. Soon another follows and hushed sobs fill the room. Words are being mumbled, but none of them make quite sense. It's like the quiet storm, when you don't know if to run for cover yet or to wait it out.

Victoria suddenly gasps as unexpected hand catches her wrist - stuck in time, still by Kate's cheek. She hestitantly looks up to Kate's face and meets her eyes. Totally unreadable. What fills them? They seem to be shining, but there are no traces of tears now. She says nothing, just stares, unable to make a move at first. The silence is deafening and she just can't take it. She can't wait to be slapped, screamed at and kicked out of the room. And so she speaks, shoulders shaking, voice rasp and breathless.

 

" _I'm sorry...I'm so sorry.. I never intended for you to die, I never wanted to..._ " Never wanted to what? Laugh at your ass with my friends? Slut-shame you even tough you were unconcious? Make a fuss out of a video and send it to everyone? You never wanted to what, the fuck, exactly, Victoria?

 

Her head falls on other girl's body. Trying to ~~hide~~ /save her face, as always.

 

She expects hatred. Anger, rejection, fear. She deserves them all right now.

But Kate Marsh is none of those things.

 

Instead she cups Victoria's face in her hands, smiles delicately and warmly recites the Bible: “ _If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them_." How the world can be so simple for her? It seems impossible. With doing wrong, comes revenge. It was a lesson she learned the hard way. It's also the first time she heard something like that in a long time. Her parents never bothered to baptise her. Money and fame were the only religion she knew. All this talking about Jesus and purity sounded like bulshit before, but Kate Marsh really does practice what she preach.

She's unsure of what to say next, just nods slightly in agreement. Her hands move up and slowly wipes down the tears, careful enough as not to destroy what's left of her mascara. It doesn't matter now anyway, even if it cost 100$. After a moment she decides to speak up.

 

“ ** _If there's anything I can do for you now, just say it_.”**

Kate's face is a bit brighter than a second ago and Victoria swears there's a hint of smile tucking at her lips. Smaller girl takes her by the hand and the queen fights the notion to free it from her grasp.

**" _You can start by being nicer to Max._ "**

Max? And what the fuck does she have to do with it? Well, actually, everything... as always. That hipster weirdo. Right now she could've asked for anything, well almost anything - there's some limit to Victoria's generosity - but still; she chose to care about the well-being of her friend. She wonders if she would ever do the same for anyone, Taylor maybe...

 **"** _ **Max is...unique.**_ **"** She barely stumbles at finding the right word. **"** _ **I'm forever grateful she got to you on time**_ **"** She really is, tough. Cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die honest type.

**" _Yeah, she's my best friend. I can't thank her enough for waking me up from that nightmare. But even angels need angels_ " **

Being a guardian angel for Max Caulfield is asking for way too much (if that's what Kate's intending), but she just cant say 'no' to her right now. Especially when Kate's voice, despite being a bit husky, still sounds so hopeful as if nothing bad has happened. And her soft fingers mindlessy trail her own, brining the uknown comfort she secretly appreciates. Victoria really does say 'no' too often.

 _ **"I think I could...be her fairy godmother. From time to time"**_ she says and barely surpresses a frown escaping her facade and puts on a shy smile again. Kate just smiles sheepishly, like she hasn't noticed.

_**"Im glad... She's got too much going on in her head right now"** _

Of course she does, sneaking around the dorm and skipping classes with that blue-haired cliché punk. Doesn't she know it stopped being a trend in like 1989?

 

Victoria sighs quietly, still a bit in denial about everything that happened since she entered the room. They've never had much of a normal conversation with Kate, so she's uncertain what to say. Despite all the guilt, it feels quite nice tough, she can't disagree with that. Just as she's thinking of making up an excuse to leave and makes a vow to never mention this whole situation to anyone, her phone blows up. The screen lights up a name - “Nathan”. Kate notices this and smiles sadly. There's a shift of air in the room, as if something's boiling underneath them. They both can feel it, but neither comments on it. Before Victoria can open her mouth, Kate's voice echoes:

“ _ **It's okay. You can go now**_ _._ ” it's almost offending, blaiming her for the shallow remorse, expecting more from her. The name _Nathan_ is trigerring, brining up anger in Kate. Anger Victoria expected to see before but didn't. She gathers up clumsilly and proceeds to the door. _Coward_ , she calls to herself, _all bark and no bite_.

 

Just before grabbing the dorknob she mumbles.

“ _ **We can finish this chat sometime later, kay, Katie? That is, unless you hate me.”**_

She doesn't stop to hear the answer, just rushes out of the room, leaving with a loud thud. She tries to recollect her thoughts and remembers her promise to the other girl. Just as her, she must now pracitce what she preaches.

 

 

 

Back in there, the smaller girl's figure lifts up a bit. Kate rests her head against a pillow and exhales loudly, looking at the polaroid photo laying next to the balloons and fresh flowers. She whispers to the long gone visitor.

“ _ **I don't hate you, Victoria.”**_

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my first fanfic ever, inspired by this hella amazing game. There are some grammar mistakes and my vocabulary is poor, so sorry about that. I wil work on it in the next work, if it's ever going to happen. Feel free to give me some tips and leave a small critique. Thanks! :)
> 
> This scene is what I feel kind of could happen sometime during Episode 4. It matches Victoria's personality in my playthrough so I hope you won't find her out of character. I really enjoyed stripping down her layers of queen bitch trope. Might focus on someone else next time.


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